The End (Is Just the Beginning)
by Ruby Casablanca
Summary: Set six months after The Heir, a more grown up Eadlyn Schreave has selected her future husband. The whole of Illéa celebrates her engagement, while she reflects on both the past and her bright future to come.


A/N: Just something that I thought of on the fly while reading The Heir. This story jumps ahead to the end of Eadlyn's Selection. Eadlyn's grown a bit older and wiser, and she's chosen the man she's going to marry. Just a cute bit of fluff and a spin on a conversation between Kile and Eadlyn in Chapter 18. I've never written for the Selection series, so please be kind. Hope you enjoy! :)

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The End (Is Just the Beginning)

Fireworks lit up the Angeles sky in a bright display of colors. From what I could see from the fourth floor balcony, it looked like they were coming from multiple different places. All the towns and suburbs were having their own celebrations over my engagement. The palace itself was currently holding a ball in honor of the event, but I chose to sneak out a bit early. Everyone was high on love, and I smiled at the thought that, for the first time, I did something right in the eyes of my people.

I could've stayed out on the balcony all night, staring at the dazzling display that shined brighter than the stars. But someone was waiting for me inside, someone who I did not want to keep waiting. After all, even if I wasn't at the ball, I had an engagement to celebrate.

Even from far away, I could feel the love of millions radiating towards me, and it started chipping away at another layer of my defenses. I was never going to get used to letting people in, to feeling vulnerable and open to anyone, especially the public, but I was learning. I had built up my wall so high that I had forgotten what it was like on the other side.

Then Kile came along and started to take them down. I didn't notice at first, but he was clever, and with his architect's mind started to take me apart brick by brick. He was slow; he was patient. And in the end he had blown a hole through my cover and I hadn't even noticed. It was then that I knew that I all my careful plans and calculations had gone out the window.

In the end, I was left with Henri, Hale, Ean, and Kile as the Elite. All good candidates, and annoyingly all leaving lasting impressions on my heart. In the beginning, I had sworn to myself that I would not become attached to any of the boys in the Selection. Well, look what good that did me now.

I knew I was not only going to break three hearts, but part of my own as well. But I also knew that I couldn't marry all four, and that in my heart of hearts, I knew that only one of them was the person I really wanted.

Saying goodbye to Ean was the easiest. I had only kept him around as long as I had as an escape route, something safe and an easy out. He had appealed to me at the start, when I was much more naive and against the thought of marriage. But things were different now, and I had changed. Something told me that a marriage of convenience was not what my heart wanted anymore. I was not devastated as I watched him go, though I felt a bit hollowed when he bowed his final farewell and exited the Men's Room.

However, telling Henri goodbye was one of the hardest things I'd had to do all Selection. I'd grown to love him dearly, but I knew my feelings of love would not turn to passion. He didn't cry, didn't complain. He simply bowed and kissed my hand. Erik translated his wishes for my happy future, and regrets that it didn't work between us, all the while fixing me with shining, sad eyes. That was enough to make me tear up. Henri was so sweet and kind. The last thing I ever wanted to do was hurt someone as gentle as him.

The only thing that hurt more than saying goodbye to Henri was choosing Kile instead of Hale. Not that I was making the wrong decision, but at that point it was a matter of the heart, and no matter who I chose, the other Selected would be devastated. However, I think that Hale knew he wasn't going to be picked. I could see it in the resigned way he looked at me after the elimination. He knew from the start that Kile was my choice.

So I wasn't surprised when he came to my room that night and told me that he was leaving in the morning. I didn't try to stop him; every Selected had the freedom to leave at any time, even now. But I didn't want him to go. As much as I knew I could not marry him and that my heart lied with Kile, I had grown to love him as well, even like a brother in Ahren's absence. I had thought more than once that, if Kile had not been there, Hale and I would have made a wonderful couple. But I knew that fantasy and brotherly affection was poor reasoning to let him stay.

The morning after Hale left, the morning I was supposed to announce my proposal to the entire country, was the scariest of my life. With Hale gone, there was only one option for me to choose, and the people would be suspicious. They had only just begun to like me these past few weeks once I really started taking the marriage aspect of the Selection seriously. What if I had gotten rid of the wrong boys? What if the nation didn't approve of my choice? This was no time for me to fail.

At first, as bowed my head and extended a single rose to Kile, I was scared that he wouldn't say yes. After all, as the future Queen of Illéa, I was the one that had to do the asking. I was the one putting my heart on the line in front of my friends, family, and the entire country. And well, if Kile had said no…I don't think my pride could've handled it.

But he said yes. Kile said yes and it nearly made me faint at the idea that someone would willingly want to spend the rest of their life with me. Of course, I knew that marriage was the end game of the Selection. I wasn't ignorant. It was just that…it didn't seem real until I actually had to do it.

If there was anyone I would have wanted to spend the rest of my life with though, it would be Kile. Not only because he understood me in a way that none of the other boys did, but because he managed to work his way deep into my heart until I could no longer deny that what I felt for him extent far beyond friendship or a simple crush. I was in love, plain and simple, and I had almost managed to scare him off.

I leaned into Kile and sighed. All those fears were behind me. I had nothing but a bright future to look forward to.

I had a plan to convince Dad to let Kile and I go on an extended honeymoon after the wedding. Kile had always wanted to travel, and now that he was marrying me he wouldn't get the chance to leave the palace any time soon. I was pushing for three months, enough time to see a couple of different places but also not too much time that Dad would be completely overwhelmed. I had been lording over my brothers for years like my title made me better than everyone, even them. But Kaden was right; being queen was just a job. I could take some time off.

It would be my wedding present to him, and I couldn't wait to see the look on Kile's face when I told him.

Kile's arms wrapped around me as we watched the fireworks dance in the dark Angeles sky, and I melted into him. Never in my life had I been so content. Ahren and my mother were right. All these years I had been mistaking happiness for comfort. Now that I knew what true happiness felt like, there was no way I was ever giving it up.

"Kile Woodwork, do you want to kiss me?" I asked him, repeating the words I had said to him what felt like so long ago. In reality, it had only been a few months, but a few months was all it took to change my world as I knew it.

Het let out a whistle just like he had before, and I knew that he remembered as well. "Not shy at all, are you?"

"Stop it," I teased, unable to stop the smile growing on my face. "Yes or no?"

He pursed his lips, pretending to think it over, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "I wouldn't mind it."

"And you understand that me kissing you means that I actually love you and that I would want nothing more than to marry you."

His face lit up at that, like all the light in the city had chosen to focus on him. I was still awed at the fact that I could make him happy, and that he could make me happy as well. We had spent the majority of our lives hating one another, or at least trying to. But we had only seen one another at the surface. Not for the first time, I was grateful to whatever circumstances led to me picking his name out of the Angeles basket that day. I couldn't bear to think if it had been someone else's name, and that I never got to know the sweet, compassionate boy who lived behind the floppy hair and books.

"Thank goodness," he smiled like I had just handed him the world.

"Right answer."

I leaned up and kissed him, his lips soft and smooth against mine. Kisses with Kile never grew old; I always wanted them, always enjoyed them. He was like a calm in the storm of my life, a safe haven to retreat to. When he kissed me, I felt loved. I felt safe and warm and cherished. If my only goal for the future was to be worthy of his kisses, then I think that I would want for nothing else out of life.

Of course, life would want more out of me. It was the end of my Selection, but my responsibilities still continued. I was to be queen one day. Not any day soon; hopefully my father still had a good decade of ruling left in him before I took the throne. But I would still have to shadow him, do the budgets and paperwork. Life would go back to normal like it was before the Selection, except this time, instead of coming back to Neena, I would get to come back to Kile.

We broke apart, and he played with the little ends of my hair that had fallen out of my bun.

"Of all the things I thought would happen when my name was called, I never dreamed I'd ever marry you."

I smiled at that, playing with the top button of his dress shirt.

"I never dreamed you'd want to."

Part of me was still so insecure about all of this. Feelings, emotions, love, they were all so new to me. Even this late in the game, I was uncertain. One misstep and I was afraid I was going to mess everything up.

Kile gently took my chin and lifted my head until I met him eye to eye. His expression was so open, so honest in a way that soothed all my fears. I think that was why we worked so well. I was better at being closed off and he was an open book.

"I'm here."

I knew we weren't going to be perfect. I wasn't going to have the fairytale love like Mom and Dad; Kile and I were too different for that. We would still fight - we fought over little things at least once a day - but we would acknowledge how stupid we were and make up. We were both stubborn and hot headed when we had to be. I was still a control freak and he was always going to press me to give up the reins at least for a moment. It was push and pull but we always met back in the middle.

We both worked on one another, and in a way, we filled in the gaps that we both were missing.


End file.
